Should I Quit Nursing and Give Formula Instead?

I visited with a mom yesterday and after she shared her story with me, I asked if she would mind sharing it here. She said that was fine but typing was not something she enjoyed so I asked if it was ok if I wrote it out the best I could. And she said that was fine.

While pregnant with her second child a friend (who was using the “Digestive Health” pills for her child) mentioned to her that probiotics and enzymes are good to take while pregnant. So she took one pill a day during her pregnancy. After she had the baby, she upped it to 2 pills a day. But she soon found that she wasn’t making enough milk and that the baby took well to a bottle. So she continued nursing but also supplemented. It wasn’t long and the baby got fussy and so she started trying different formulas like Gentle Ease and soy formulas. He continued to get fussier and she got more wore out and and finally came to the point where she started avoiding dairy to see if that would help her baby feel better. He seemed to a little better. But she finally decided she should maybe just quit nursing and maybe that would help. But then she decided that maybe her child was needing more probiotics and enzymes and so she upped her dose to 4 a day. He soon started improving greatly and she decided that the soy was not setting well with him so she started nursing as much as possible and supplementing with goats milk. She said her little boy is now 90% better than he was before. She is still trying to avoid dairy and says she will slowly try adding dairy back in . 

The protein in dairy is extremely hard for babies to break down so therefore by eliminating it from a nursing mother’s diet it can reduce a baby’s digestive problems greatly. But often babies that have a hard time breaking down the proteins in dairy will also have a hard time with soy and other high protein foods.  Enzymes are what are the key to breaking down proteins but most of our foods we eat have no enzymes left in them because whenever a food is cooked or processed it kills the enzymes in it. Our pancreas also makes enzymes for some babies it is hard for their pancreas to have to start working so hard right away and their little systems can’t keep up.  It is also possible for a baby to inherit from their parents a pancreas that will always have a hard time making very many digestive enzymes.

Also babies that have digestive problems/acid reflux often are low on probiotics (good, live bacteria that coats, lines, and protects the entire digestive tract.) because too much acid kills probiotics.

So, if a nursing mother will take plenty of probiotics and enzymes she will make her milk have the proteins already broken down and so therefore her milk should be very easy for the baby to digest. Plus the probiotics will coat his esophagus, stomach, and intestines and can help decrease the pain of them being rubbed raw and inflamed.

If you are a nursing mom and have found probiotics and enzymes to help your baby, please tell us how many and how often you take them and how much they have helped your child.

You can take a look at the Digestive Health pills sold by Core Health Products website here. http://www.corehealthproducts.com/products/digestive

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To learn more about the symptoms our children suffered from and what we found to help tremendously with their reflux and digestive problems, go to my Home Page! 

Martha Koehn, wife to Russ and mom to Quinton, Jackson, and Shiloh Beth

marthakoehn83@gmail.com